Overseas aid workers qualify for interest free loan

Volunteers working for charitable organisations accepted by the Order in Council may qualify for interest-free student loans while working in overseas aid activities, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne announced today.

Borrowers must generally be present in New Zealand for six months to qualify for an interest-free loan.

However, an exemption may be granted for certain borrowers who are overseas, including those who are working for free or for a token payment for a charitable organisation that has been accepted and "named" by Order in Council as a qualifying organisation.

"The provision recognises the special circumstances of these charities, their employees and the contribution they make through various activities that are not based on profit or remuneration," says Dunne.

Borrowers working overseas for any named charitable organisation must still apply to Inland Revenue to determine if they qualify for the interest write-off.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name:
Your email:	Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to NetProphet go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Anti-spam verification:

Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Email Updates Sign up now

RSS Feeds View the list

Twitter Read our tweets